Nevada receives $6.5M to boost coronavirus response efforts

CARSON CITY — Nevada will receive $6.5 million from the federal government under an emergency allocation to support its coronavirus response efforts, the federal Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday.

“State and local health departments are on the front lines of responding to the COVID-19 outbreak, and we are deeply grateful for their work,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a news release announcing the funding. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is “distributing this new funding extremely rapidly,” he added.

The total amount to Nevada is $6,532,739. The CDC was contacting states Wednesday to award a total of $560 million to local government entities. State awards range from about $4.5 million to Delaware to nearly $38 million for California.

A total of $8.3 billion in federal assistance toward COVID-19 response efforts was approved last week. The resources are to help governments accelerate planning and response, provide technical assistance and program support, and support communication coordination efforts.

Contact Bill Dentzer at bdentzer@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-0661. Follow @DentzerNews on Twitter.